CDC Nearly Warned People With Post-Vaccination Myocarditis Not to Play Sports, Document Shows

The CDC instead published a document that did not include the warning.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters in Atlanta, Ga., on Aug. 25, 2023. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention planned to recommend that people who suffered heart inflammation following COVID-19 vaccination not engage in rigorous activity for months, according to a newly disclosed document.

“Patients can typically return to normal activity after initial improvement in symptoms, though restriction from rigorous activity like competitive sports is typically recommended for at least 3 months for those with myocarditis, due to concerns for sudden cardiac events while the heart recovers,” the CDC stated in the draft alert, which it was poised to send to health care providers in May 2021.

It cited guidance from the American Heart Association.

The CDC ultimately opted instead to release a document about post-vaccination myocarditis, described as clinical considerations for doctors with patients with heart inflammation. The clinical considerations did not mention any restrictions on physical activity.

The CDC did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.

The CDC should have released the alert, Barbara Loe Fisher, co-founder and president of the National Vaccine Information Center, told The Epoch Times via email.

“How many young lives were put at risk or lost because CDC officials chose not to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth about what they knew when they knew it?” she said.

Some studies have identified an increased risk of myocarditis following COVID-19 vaccination, particularly for young men. While many patients with myocarditis and pericarditis do recover, others have dealt with lingering issues. The conditions can also result in death.

A number of patients with the inflammation have died—with vaccines identified as the cause of death in autopsies and death certificates. The deceased included American athletes, although a recent paper states that there was no increase in sudden cardiac death among young athletes during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine stated that evidence is inadequate to accept or reject a causal relationship between COVID-19 vaccines and sudden death.

“The severity of myocarditis and pericarditis cases can vary; most patients with myocarditis after mRNA COVID-19 vaccination have experienced resolution of symptoms by hospital discharge,” the CDC stated on its website.

The page does not mention death as a possible outcome.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the CDC’s parent agency, declined to say whether it is investigating post-vaccination deaths.

The Epoch Times previously reported that the CDC drafted the alert and opted against releasing it because of concerns about “[appearing] alarmist,” but the draft itself had never been published.

The draft was obtained from the HHS by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which is chaired by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), through a subpoena.

The document and other records show that the government’s “efforts to downplay and delay warning the public about the risks of myocarditis associated with the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines,” the panel’s majority staff said in a report released on May 21.

The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines utilize messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) platforms.

The subcommittee also noted that health officials became aware of post-vaccination cases of myocarditis and a related condition, pericarditis, in February 2021, but that the clinical considerations document was not released until May 2021 and that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) did not add information about the adverse events to labels for the vaccines until June 2021.

The clinical considerations and the draft health alert both stated that most of the post-vaccination inflammation patients responded well to treatment. The clinical considerations stated that the severity of cases varied, while the draft alert stated that most cases were mild.

Both documents provided advice to doctors, including electrocardiogram examination. And both said that the CDC was still recommending COVID-19 vaccination.

“CDC continues to recommend COVID-19 vaccination for everyone 12 years of age and older given the risk of COVID-19 illness and related, possibly severe complications, such as long-term health problems, hospitalization, and even death,” the clinical considerations reads.

A CDC spokesperson told The Epoch Times in 2024 that the clinical considerations reached health providers, just like the health alert would have.

“CDC’s focus and concern on myocarditis after COVID-19 vaccination is well known and documented,” the spokesperson said at the time.

FDA Emails

The FDA, another agency within HHS, communicated with the CDC in the days prior to the decision not to send the health alert.

“After discussions internally and with FDA, we will likely [redacted],” a CDC official wrote in an email on May 26, 2021. “Our team is on a call with FDA now. I will share the messaging shortly.”

The official later said the CDC chose to publish the clinical considerations rather than the alert.

Both Dr. Janet Woodcock, acting commissioner of the FDA at the time, and Dr. Peter Marks, head of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research at the time, were emailing then-CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky before the decision was made, according to other documents released by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

Woodcock wrote in one email on May 26, 2021, “Rochelle, do you know that FDA does not concur with the issuance of the myocarditis [alert] as written?”

Walensky told Woodcock that she would hold the alert until she spoke to Woodcock.

“Thanks so much. I just learned this was about to go out, despite our concerns,” Woodcock wrote.

A day later, Marks wrote in opposition to releasing the clinical considerations. He said that the FDA “still have concerns here if myocarditis and pericarditis have not actually signaled” and that the clinical considerations were “pretty close to the original” draft alert.

“Can you help me understand why we are doing this when pediatricians and others in the community already seem to be aware?” he wrote.

The CDC had stated internally that by then, there was a safety signal for myocarditis and pericarditis for people aged 16 to 24. It’s not clear whether Marks had been or was subsequently informed of this.

Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, a CDC official, wrote in an email thread with CDC officials that discussed Marks’s missive that “they want to walk back” the language about sports restrictions.

Daskalakis did not respond to a request for comment.

Neither Woodcock and Marks, both of whom are no longer with the FDA, nor Walensky, who left the CDC in 2023, could be reached for comment.